Teachers and students create protective gear for essential workers in coronavirus battle: ‘I realized ... I have the exact skill that people are calling out for’

Eric Race, a career technical teacher at Wheeling High School, wears a headband portion of the face shields that he and others in District 214 are 3D printing in order to help protect people on the front line working with COVID-19 patients. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Troubled by a shortage of protective gear for essential workers, several Chicago-area educators are stepping up this week to create face shields for those on the front lines of the coronavirus battle.

Career and Technical Education teachers from Buffalo Grove and Wheeling high schools spent their recent spring break designing a prototype for a protective face shield that they began producing this week in their homes with 3D printers, said David Schuler, superintendent at Arlington Heights-based Township High School District 214.

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The manager of Harper College’s Makerspace and Entrepreneur Center, Jeff Moy, will assist the effort using his lab’s laser cutters.

“These teachers are stepping up to save lives and flatten the curve," Schuler said. “In all of my years as an educator, nothing has made me more proud. ... They are contributing to the health and safety of the community.”

Eric Race collects several 3D printed headbands for use as face shields at his home. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Employees at a suburban nursing home, a local grocery store and Mount Prospect-based River Trails School District 26 on Monday phoned Schuler requesting the face shields, which will be distributed free of charge, locally and across the state, with assistance from the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association.

Schuler said the district’s teachers produced several different versions of the face shield, which were then reviewed by local first responders who are familiar with personal protective equipment, or PPE, and who made the final decision on the design.

In addition to partnering with Harper College, Schuler reached out to state Sen. Ann Gillespie, D-Arlington Heights, and officials with the manufacturers’ association, who assisted in securing additional 3D printers and other needed supplies.

Despite a scarcity of protective masks, in particular the N95 masks, the teachers opted to make face shields, which would not require packaging, nor federal or local certification, which is required for PPE used in medical settings, like hospitals and the new drive-up COVID-19 testing stations.

“It is our belief that by the end of next week, we will be in full production, producing hundreds of face shields each day,” Schuler said.

Of the nearly 600,000 employees in manufacturing jobs across the state, one half are expected to retire in the next 10 to 15 years, prompting a demand for skilled workers that career education programs like those at District 214 and Harper can help fulfill, said Mark Denzler, IMA president and CEO, and the co-chairman of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s new Essential Equipment Task Force.

The recent critical shortages of everything from N95 masks to ventilators underscores the importance of industrial technology programs that can prepare students for jobs that offer competitive salaries, and ensure the U.S. has a manufacturing sector workforce that is ready to assist during times of crisis, Denzler said.

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“For years there was this increasing push for everyone to go to a four-year college, but District 214 has been on the cutting edge, educating students who are hired for great jobs in manufacturing as soon as they graduate from high school,” Denzler said.

Several 3D printed headbands are pictured. They will be used to make face shields. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Columbia College Chicago’s fashion studies students are also answering the call for PPE with the recent launch of #ColumbiaMakesMasks, which aims to create 2,000 cotton covers for N95 masks “to prolong the usable life of personal protective equipment for healthcare providers responding to the COVID-19 crisis,” according to a statement on the college’s website.

The initiative was started by student Maria Varela, a fashion studies major, after she heard that frontline health care workers were having to reuse N95 masks for up to a week due to shortages.

In a statement on the website, Varela said that after talking to a friend whose sister is working with coronavirus patients at a Chicago hospital, “I realized it’s this one weird time in the world where I have the exact skill that people are calling out for — a skill that people need.”

Karen Ann Cullotta is a suburban reporter covering education, municipal government and human interest stories. A graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, when Karen’s not reporting, she can usually be found cooking Italian food, digging in her vegetable garden and hanging out with her family.